Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu announced Thursday that Israel plans to take legal action against The New York Times over what he described as a deeply offensive and misleading article accusing Israeli soldiers and military dogs of sexually abusing Palestinian detainees.

The decision follows the publication of a column by Nicholas Kristof in the newspaper, which alleged widespread sexual abuse of Palestinian prisoners by Israeli guards and soldiers.

“They defamed the soldiers of Israel and perpetuated a blood libel about rape, trying to create a false symmetry between the genocidal terrorists of Hamas and Israel’s valiant soldiers,” Netanyahu said as he vowed harsh legal action against the paper.

“Under my leadership, Israel will not be silent. We will fight these lies in the court of public opinion and in the court of law. Truth will prevail.”

Israel’s Foreign Ministry confirmed it is preparing a defamation lawsuit, calling the report “one of the most hideous and distorted lies ever published against the State of Israel in the modern press.”

The controversial piece, based on testimony from 14 former Palestinian detainees, claimed that sexual abuse was systematically embedded within Israeli military practices.

It also alleged that Israeli forces trained dogs to assault prisoners.

The article quickly spread online and triggered strong reactions, with critics — including some analysts and Jewish organizations — condemning it as anti-Jewish propaganda and labeling it a “blood libel.”

The timing of the report also drew attention, as it appeared one day before the release of findings from a two-year investigation into widespread sexual violence committed against Israeli civilians during Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack.

The New York Times stood by its reporter as criticism intensified.

“Nicholas Kristof is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who has reported on sexual violence for decades and is widely regarded as one of the world’s best on-the-ground reporters documenting and bearing witness to sexual abuse experienced by women and men in war and conflict zones,” a Times spokesperson said.

“He traveled to the region to report firsthand on the stories of the Palestinians who suffered abuse, and his article collects accounts in the victims’ own words, backed by independent studies.”

{Matzav.com}